More Info
“The lights were out, there, and it was illuminated only by starlight. The air was quite cold. A nightblooming flower from some unimaginable world had opened among the dark leaves, and was sending out its perfume with patient, unavailing sweetness to attract some unimaginable moth trillions of miles away, in a garden on a world circling another star. The sunlights differ, but there is only one darkness.” – Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed
As we approach the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, this goodGrief circle will guide us into an intentional exploration of darkness. We often see grief as a creature of darkness – the wellspring of emotions that are packed into our grief are to be kept in the shadowed places, out of sight so as to not dis. The dominant culture does not create the conditions for grief to come to the light to be seen and witnessed, shared and metabolized. In goodGrief we seek to challenge that, holding space in the light to tend to our grief. But just as necessary in grief work is learning how to exist in the darkness with it, sitting comfortably in the places that we’ve been taught to fear, avoid, and look away from. The darkness, just like death and grief, is inevitable, and nature’s cyclic offering of darkness is a gift that should be treated as such. Let the darkness be an opportunity for deeper understanding, deeper knowing, and deeper connection to the great universe we exist within. There are questions to be found in places devoid of the illumination we are typically drawn to. There are mysteries waiting to be explored and wisdom to gain.
Through an offering of weekly prompts and suggested practices leading up to the darkest day of the year, we will take the time to explore the darkness – literally and metaphorically. What may we find when we move with intention into the dark? What may be revealed to us – both from dark places within us and from the dark spaces we choose to explore fearlessly – when we sit in darkness from a place of peace? Join us in this goodGrief offering as we practice holding and expanding space for Grief in the Dark.
Although there are no pre-requirements for joining this goodGrief Circle, we will share guided prompts and practices weekly in our Hylo group leading up to gathering together. To orient participants to the theme of this circle and guide our group in discussion, it’s recommended (but not required) that you follow one or all of these weekly offerings on your own (or with a group!). They will inform our practice of sitting with Grief in the Dark, and may reveal useful insights for each participant to bring into the Circle.